How to handle and prevent ammonium salt crystallization
Thread Content
The acid water pipelines in the top reflux tank of the hydrogen sulfide stripping tower in diesel plants are often blocked by ammonium salt crystals. Let’s discuss how each plant prevents and deals with this issue, so that we can share good practices and learn from one another.
Does what was said upstairs refer to ammonium salt crystals in the purification system? Does the topic mentioned by the original poster relate to the chemical industry, where ammonia synthesis and urea production take place? Basically, there is no treatment of ammonium salt crystals here, but the following measures can be taken to prevent such issues: 1. Ammonia-containing wastewater from the urea system or ammonia system must be properly treated (through flashing or stripping) before it can be introduced into the system. 2. It is necessary to prevent the circulation water system or other cooling water systems from being contaminated by ammonia-containing substances; heat exchangers should be sampled and analyzed regularly to avoid the leakage of ammonia-containing substances into the cooling water systems, which could lead to ammonium salt crystallization in the water pipes. 3. Generally, the urea hydrolysis liquid or the condensate from purification processes is reused in gasification units, and these liquids contain ammonia to some extent. Such liquids must be thoroughly flashed or stripped before they can be introduced into the gasification system; otherwise, once they enter the gasification system and then return to the purification system along with the gas, the ammonia will not be treated there and will accumulate within the system, causing serious problems later on
Give extra points to floor 2. I don’t work in inorganic chemical engineering, so I don’t dare to give suggestions!
Ammonium ions in acidic pipelines and solutions form ammonium salts; upon supersaturation, crystals are formed, which leads to pipeline blockage. Mainly, the amount of ammonium ions in the acidic pipeline is too high; adding some copper ions to complex them may reduce crystallization. Of course, the introduction of Cu will result in excessive heavy metals in the slurry.
After desalination, the salt content in the crude oil is kept below 3.5 mg/L, to prevent catalyst poisoning in the reaction process as well as the formation of ammonium salt crystals that can cause blockages in the upper trays of the atmospheric tower and distillation tower, thereby avoiding corrosion in the overhead vapor lines
Pump it out promptly; do not let it stay in the pipeline for too long